Various types of helical scan recording systems and methods are known, in which the tape is looped about a recording cylinder or drum with a looping angle of about 180.degree.. The digitized video signal is distributed to a plurality of channels and is recorded with several magnetic heads on adjacent magnetic tracks. The technical effort--such as magnetic heads, amplifiers, rotating transformers--rises with the number of channels. Thus, to keep the number of recording heads and thus the construction of the recording transducer unit reasonably simple, the number of channels should be as low as possible. A suitable number is two channels, which is most desirable.
Data rates of digital video signals may be in the order of 200 megabits per second (200 Mbit/s); this means that the data rate of 100 Mbit/s per channel will be needed, which means a band width of about 50 MHz. Currently used recording speeds, however, cause an unacceptable increase in wear of the head, wear on tapes, and in the error rate if a recording rate of about 80 Mbit/s is exceeded.